Quatrefoil. Quatrefoil QUATREFOIL-QUEDLINBURG. valueless; and foreseeing that it would be impos- equal to half a crotchet, one-fourth of a minim, or wharf, consists usually of a platform on piles, or of QUEBE'C, the capital of the province of Quebec, formerly Canada East, is situated on a steep promontory at the junction of the rivers St Lawrence and St Charles, in lat. 46° 48′ N., long. 71° 12′ W. Pop. in 1861, 51,109. Q. is 180 miles north-east of Montreal, 503 miles east-north-east of Toronto, and 556 miles north-north-east of New York. It has numerous railway connections in America by means of the Grand Trunk Railway. The site of Q., originally occupied by an Indian village named Stadacona, was discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1535; but the city was founded by Champlain in 1608. It continued to be the centre of French trade and civilisation, as well as of Roman Catholic missions in North America, till 1759, when it fell into the hands of Britain by the memorable victory of Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham, above the city. Q. remained the chief city of Canada till the British settlements in the West were erected into a separate province, when it became the capital of Canada East. Ottawa (q. v.) was chosen as the capital of the United Canadas, and the movement, begun in June, 1864, for a federal union of all the British North American provinces, led to the erection of the Dominion of Canada, July 1, 1867. The citadel of Q. is the most impregnable fortress on the continent of America. The view which it commands is one of the most magnificent in the world, and the scenery in its neighbourhood, amid which are the Falls of Montmorenci, imparts an additional attraction to the city. A seminary for the education of Roman Catholic clergymen was established in the city in 1636 by M. de Laval de Montmorenci, and was raised by the queen in 1854 into a university bearing Laval's name. A Presbyterian college, named after its founder, Dr Morrin, was instituted in 1862, and affiliated in the following year to the M'Gill University of Montreal. Q. is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop and an Anglican bishop, whose respective cathedrals are among the finest specimens of Canadian church architecture. About 1500 vessels enter the port every year, and export about 33,000,000 cubic feet of timber. The exports in 1866-7 amounted altogether to $8,862,570; the imports, to $5,268,771. QUEBEC, formerly Lower Canada, and Canada East, a province of the Dominion of Canada, united by an act of the British Parliament, passed in March, 1867. The government is vested in a lieutenant-governor and an executive council appointed by him. It sends 24 members to the senate and 65 representatives to the Canadian Parliament. Its principal cities are Quebec, the capital of the province, and Montreal (q. v.). Area 210,020 sq. miles. The population in 1861 was 1,111,566, of whom 943,253, or nearly 70 per cent., were Roman Catholics. For revenue and expenditures in 1867, see CANADA, in SUPPLEMENT, Vol. X. QUEʼDLINBURG, a town of Prussian Saxony, at the northern base of the Harz Mountains, on the river Bode, and 35 miles south-west of Magdeburg. Founded by Henry the Fowler in 920, it consists of an old town, a new town, and several suburbs, and is surrounded by a wall flanked with towers. On an eminence overlooking the town stands the castle, which, prior to the Reformation, was QUA'VER, in Music, a note whose measure is the residence of the abbesses of Q., who were QUEEN-QUEEN ANNE'S FARTHINGS. independent princesses of the empire, and had a vote in the diet, and other privileges. This town was a favourite residence of the German emperors of the Saxon line. It is now the centre of considerable industry. Cloth is manufactured, and there is a good trade in corn and cattle. Pop. (1867), exclusive of the garrison, 16,856. QUEEN (Sax. cwen, woman; Gr. gyne, woman; Sansc. goni, mother, from gan, to generate), in its primary signification, the king's consort, who has in all countries been invested with privileges not belonging to other married women. The English queen, unlike other wives, can make a grant to her husband, and receive one from him. She can sue and be sued alone, and purchase land without the king's concurrence. The Statute of Treasons makes it treason to compass her death, or to violate her chastity, even with her consent, and the queen consenting is herself guilty of treason. If accused of treason, the queen is tried by the peers of the realm. A duty, amounting to one-tenth of the value of fines on grants by the crown, was in former times due to the queen, under the name of Queen-gold. Charles I. purchased it from his consort, Henrietta Maria, in 1635, for £10,000, but it was not renewed at the Restoration. The queenconsort is exempt from paying toll, and from amercements in any court. She has a household of her own, consisting of six Ladies of the Bedchamber, a Lord Chamberlain, Vice-chamberlain, Mistress of the Robes, Master of the Horse, and three Equerries, as also her Attorney-general and Solicitor-general, distinct from those of the king, who are entitled to take a place within the bar along with the King's Counsel, and prosecute suits in law and equity for the queen. It has been the usual practice to crown the queen-consort with solemnities similar to those used in the coronation of the king. In the case of Queen Caroline, consort of George IV., who was living apart from her husband, this was not done, though her right to coronation was argued by Mr Brougham before the Privy Council. Certain rents or revenues were anciently appropriated to the income of the queen, but no separate revenues seem ever to have been settled on any queen-consort by parliament. Her personal expenses are defrayed from the king's privy purse. The Queen-dowager is the widow of the deceased king. She retains most of the privileges which she enjoyed as queen-consort, nor does she lose her dignity by re-marriage; but it has been held that no one can marry the queen-dowager without permission from the king, on pain of forfeiture of lands and goods. On the marriage of a king, or accession of an unmarried prince, parliament makes provision for the queen's maintenance, in case of her survivance. An income of £100,000 a year, with two residences, was settled on the queen of George III.; and the same provision was made for the late Dowager Queen Adelaide, at the commencement of the reign of William IV. The queen-dowager, when mother of the reigning sovereign, is styled the Queen-mother. Until the time of George II., queens-consort bore the arms of the king impaled with their paternal coat, with the king's dexter and their paternal sinister supporter; since that period, they have used both royal supporters. It is not usual to place the arms of the queen-consort within the Garter. The Queen-regnant is a sovereign princess who has succeeded to the kingly power. In modern times, in those countries where the Salic law does not prevail, on failure of males, a female succeeds to the throne. By an act of Queen Mary, the first queen-regnant in England, it was declared 'that the regall power of this realme is in the quene's majestie as fully and absolutely as ever it was in any of her most noble progenitours kinges of this realme;' and it has since been held, that the powers, prerogatives, and dignities of the queenreguant differ in no respect from those of the king. The husband of the queen-regnant is her subject; but in the matter of conjugal infidelity, he is not subjected to the same penal restrictions as the queen-consort. He is not endowed by the constitution with any political rights or privileges, and his honours and precedence must be derived from the queen. The late Prince Consort was naturalised by 3 and 4 Vict. c. 1, 2, words being used which enabled him to be a privy-councillor, and sit in parliament; and by 3 and 4 Vict. c. 3, Queen Victoria was empowered to grant him an annuity of £30,000; but it was provided that His Royal Highness was not, by virtue of his marriage, to acquire any interest in the property of her Majesty. By a decree of the Queen, Prince Albert enjoyed place, pre-eminence, and precedence next to her Majesty. A queen-regnant is the only woman who is in her own right entitled to bear her arms in a shield and not in a lozenge. She is also entitled to the exterior ornaments of helmet, mantling, crest, and motto, and may surround her shield with the Garter, and the collars and ribbons of all other orders of knighthood of which she is sovereign. to a fund appropriated to increase the incomes of QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY, the name given the poorer clergy of England, created out of the first-fruits and tenths, which before the Reformation formed part of the papal exactions from the clergy. The first-fruits are the first whole year's profit of all spiritual preferments, and the tenths are onetenth of their annual profits, both chargeable according to the ancient declared value of the benefice; but the poorer livings are now exempted from the tax. Henry VIII., on abolishing the papal authority, annexed both first-fruits and tenths to the crown; and statute 2 and 3 Anne, c. 11, first formed them into a perpetual fund for the augmentation of poor livings. The Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Speaker of the House of Commons, Master of the Rolls, Privy Councillors, Lieutenants, and custodes rotulorum of the counties, the Judges, Queen's Advocate-general, Chancellors and Vice-chancellors Serjeants-at-law, Attorney and Solicitor-general, of the two Universities, Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, and mayors of the several cities; and by supplemental charter, the Officers of the Board of Green Cloth, the Queen's Counsel, and the four Clerks of the Privy Council, were made a corpora tion by the name of The Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, for the Augmentation of the Maintenance of the Poor Clergy;' and to this corporation was granted the revenue of first-fruits and tenths. The income from first-fruits and tenths together is about £14,000 per annum, and it is appropriated from year to year in capital sums, either to increase, by the accruing interest, the income of the incumbents, to purchase land for their benefit, or to erect residences for them. At present, the mode of appropriating augmentations to livings is by granting £200 to meet each approved benefaction offered by individuals to obtain such grants. The governors have also had the distribution of eleven sums of 1820, to augment the incomes of the clergy. They £100,000 each, voted by parliament from 1809 to present annually an account of their receipts and expenditure to parliament. QUEEN ANNE'S FARTHINGS. The farthings of Queen Anne have attained a celebrity from the large prices sometimes given for them by collectors. QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLAND-QUEEN'S COUNSEL. Their rarity, however, has been much overrated; it was, indeed, long a popular notion that only three farthings were struck in her reign, of which two were in public keeping-a third was still going about, and, if recovered, would bring a prodigious price. The Queen Anne farthings were designed by a German of the name of Crocker or Croker, principal engraver to the Mint; and were only patterns f an intended coin, having never been put into circulation; but they are by no means exceedingly scarce. Some of them have raised letters, and on the reverse, the four shields of England, France, Scotland, and Ireland, arranged as a cross, and separated by fleurs-de-lis. Those with sunk letters are less frequently met with-some of which have for obverse Peace on a car, others Britannia under a canopy. A few of them were struck in gold. QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLAND AND QUEEN CHARLOTTE SOUND. See VANCOUVER ISLAND. QUEEN OF THE MEADOW. See SPIREA. QUEEN-POST, the side or secondary upright ties in a trussed-roof. See Roof. ! public bodies, by commanding them to do a specitic duty, the writ being called a writ of Mandamus; or by prohibiting them from going on with some matter over which they have no jurisdiction, by a writ called a writ of Prohibition. The Q. B. also entertains appeals from justices of the peace on a vast variety of matters. Besides the criminal jurisdiction, and the prerogative writs of Mandamus, Prohibition, and Quo Warranto, there is a civil jurisdiction belonging to the Q. B. of the most extensive kind; indeed, any civil action to recover debts and damages may be brought there. The civil jurisdiction is, however, shared in common with the other two common law courts. The judges of the Q. B. are often called the Queen's Coroners, having a universal jurisdiction of that kind throughout England, though seldom acting in that capacity. The Chiefjustice has latterly been usually made a peer, or has the option of becoming one if he pleases. The officers of the court are the Master of the Crownthe business, and several masters of the court, who office, who attends to the criminal department of attend to the civil department. The puisne judges of the Court of Q. B. rank before those of the other two courts. QUEEN'S COLLEGE, Oxford. In 1340, Robert de Egglesfield, chaplain or confessor to Queen Philippa, founded, by licence from Edward III., a collegiate hall in Oxford, under the name of the Hall of the Queen's Scholars. In his statutes, he sets forth his motives and objects with unusual minuteness. Theological study was the main object of the foundation. Residence was rigidly enforced, The and poverty enjoined with peculiar force. original number of the provost and fellows was to be 13, in memory of our Lord and the 12 apostles; and the ultimate number of poor boys to be educated on the foundation was 72, in memory of the 70 disciples. Few colleges, however, have disregarded more directly the wishes of their founders. When the Commissioners under 17 and 18 Vict. c. 81, began their work, they found the poverty required changed into a provostship of £1000 a year, and fellowships of £300, the conditional preference to north-countrymen converted into an absolute exclusion of all others; and the 72 poor children represented by 8 taberdars,' as they are called, who were alone eligible to fellowships. A separate foundation had been given to Queen's by John Michel, Esq., in 1736, consisting of 8 open fellowships, and 4 open scholarships. The Commissioners solidated, and the college now consists of a provost, introduced great changes. The foundations are con19 fellows, 15 scholars or taberdars, and 2 Bibleclerks. There are also upwards of 20 exhibitions in this college, ranging from £30 to £100 per annum, confined for the most part to natives of the northern counties. There are 28 benefices in the gift of this college, and also the principalship of St Edmund QUEEN'S BENCH, or KING'S BENCH, one of the three superior courts of common law in of the three superior courts of common law in England, the other two being the Courts of Common Pleas and Exchequer. The Court of King's Bench was so called from the origin of the court, inasmuch as the king used to sit there in person. In Cromwell's time, it was called the Upper Bench. The court consists of five judges, a chiefjustice (who is called the Chief-justice of England, and is the highest of all the judges next to the Lord Chancellor), and four puisne judges called justices. Though the court has long been fixed permanently in Westminster Hall, London, yet it may sit anywhere in England, and may follow the sovereign's person. There is an appeal from most of the decisions of the Q. B. to the Exchequer Chamber, which consists of the judges of the two other common law courts, and from thence to the House of Lords. The ancient jurisdiction of the court, and the history of its modifications, are too technical to be stated in this place, but the outline of the leading points of jurisdiction may be shortly stated. The Q. B. is the highest court which has a criminal jurisdiction, and such jurisdiction is unlimited. But practically, this jurisdiction is seldom exercised originally, for it is only when an indictment is removed from an inferior court into the Q. B. that a criminal trial takes place there, and this is only the case when there is some peculiar difficulty or importance attending the trial, which renders it expedient to remove it from the sessions or assizes. But though criminal trials in the Q. B. are exceptional, there are certain criminal matters which are part of its ordinary administration. A criminal information, for example, when filed by the Attorneygeneral, or the master of the Crown-office, charging a person with a criminal offence, is tried in the Q. B. as a matter of course, and can be tried in no other court. The Q. B. exercises a superintending control over all inferior tribunals, and also over Hall. QUEEN'S COUNSEL are certain barristers who receive from her Majesty a patent giving them preaudience over their brethren, and but for which they would rank only according to seniority of their standing as barristers. The advantage of appointing Queen's Counsel is this, that it enables the most able or successful counsel to take precedence of those of the same or longer standing, and to take the chief conduct of causes. In practice, there are almost invariably two counsel engaged on each side, called a leader and a junior, and the leader is generally a Queen's Counsel, and the junior is not. The appointment is made by the crown, on the nomination of the Lord Chancellor. The practice of appointing crown counsel is adopted in Ireland, but not in QUEEN'S COUNTY-QUEENSLAND. Scotland. In the Courts of Chancery in England, it is usual for a Queen's Counsel to confine himself to a particular Vice-Chancellor's court, or to that of the Master of the Rolls, so that his clients may always reckon on his attendance there; and when he goes into another court, he requires an addition to his fee. In the common law courts, however, this arrangement is impracticable, and has never been adopted. It is sometimes popularly believed that the appointment of Queen's Counsel entitles the counsel to a salary from the crown; but this is a mistake, except as to the Attorney and Solicitorgeneral. When a Queen's Counsel is engaged in a criminal case against the crown, as, for example, to defend a prisoner, he requires to get special licence to do so from the crown, which is always given, as a matter of course, on payment of a small fee. In courts of law and equity, a Queen's Counsel is entitled to preaudience over all other counsel, except those who were appointed Queen's Counsel before him. A Queen's Counsel has preaudience over all Serjeants-at-law, though many of the latter obtain patents of precedence, which also make them in effect Queen's Counsel, as well as serjeants, and prevent them being displaced by those who come after them. The order of Serjeants-atlaw is much more ancient than that of Queen's Counsel, though now it is in point of rank inferior. The practice of appointing Queen's Counsel is not older than the time of Sir Francis Bacon, who was the first appointed. QUEEN'S COUNTY, an inland county of the province of Leinster, Ireland, is bounded N. by the King's County, E. by Kildare and Carlow, S. by Kilkenny, and W. by Tipperary and King's County. Area, 424,854 acres, of which 342,422 are arable. Pop. in 1861, 90,750, of whom 79.959 were Catholics, 9854 Protestants of the Established Church, and the rest Protestants of other denominations. The number of acres under crop in 1863 was 143,618; cattle, 57,580; sheep, 90,311; pigs, 24,069. Q. C., for the most part, is within the basin of the Barrow, which is the principal river, and is partly navigable for barges. On the north-western border lie the Slieve Bloom Mountains, and the Dysart Hills occupy the south-east; the rest of the surface being flat or gently undulating. In its geological structure, it belongs to the great limestone district; but the Slieve Bloom Mountains are sandstone, and the Dysart Hills include coal, but not in deep or profitably-worked beds. Coarse linen and cotton cloths are manufactured in small quantities. The chief town is Maryborough; pop. (1861) 2857. Q. C. anciently formed part of the districts of Leix and Ossory; and after the English invasion, on the submission of the chief O'More, the territory retained a qualified independence. Under Edward II., the O'Mores became so powerful, that for a long series of years, an unceasing contest was maintained by them with the English, with various alternations of success. In the reign of Edward VI., Bellingham, the Lord-deputy, succeeded in re-annexing the territory of the O'Mores to the Pale (q. v.); and a new revolt in Mary's reign led to strong and successful measures, by which it was finally reduced to a shire, under the name Q. C., given to it in honour of Mary, from whom also the chief town, Maryborough, was called. There are a few antiquities of interest-a perfect round tower, and two in a less perfect condition, and some ecclesiastical and feudal remains, the most important of the latter being a castle of Strongbow on the picturesque Rock of Dunamare. Q. C. is traversed by the Great Southern and Western Railway, and also by a branch of the Grand Canal. It returns two members to parliament. QUEEN'S EVIDENCE. See KING'S EVIDENCE. QUEE'NSFERRY, SOUTH AND NORTH.-South Q. is a royal and parliamentary burgh in Linlithgowshire, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, about 9 miles west-north-west of Edinburgh. It was erected into a royal burgh in 1636, but was for centuries before a burgh of regality. The walks and scenery about South Q., with Hopetoun House and grounds on the west, and Dalmeny Park on the east, are very beautiful, and the town itself is a good deal resorted to for sea-bathing. The Forthmuch wider both above and below the ferry--here narrows to a width of only about two miles. It receives historical mention as early as the middle of the 11th c., as the ferry across which royal personages passed when travelling between EdinA railway-bridge across burgh and Dunfermline. the firth at this point has long been talked of. Pop. (1861) 1230, within the parliamentary bounds. South Q. is one of the Stirling district burghs. North Queensferry, a small village in Fifeshire, on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, opposite South Q.; pop. about 400. QUEENSLAND. This new British colony occupies the whole of the north-eastern portion of Australia, commencing at a point of the east coast about 400 miles north of Sydney, called Point Danger, in lat. 28° 8′ S. The greater portion of the southern boundary-line is formed by the 29th parallel of south latitude. The eastern seaboard extends about 1300 miles to Cape York, the extreme northern point of the continent, in lat. 10° 40'. The mean breadth of the territory is 900 miles, from the eastern coast-line to the meridian of 138 E. long., which forms the western boundary-line. This includes the greater portion of the Gulf of Carpentaria, which has a seaboard of about 900 miles. The whole of Q. comprises 678,600 sq. m.-nearly twelve times the area of England and Wales. The portion of the colony extending along the eastern coast, is indented, with numerous bays, which are the outlets of many navigable rivers, having their sources in the cool gorges and deep recesses of a great mountain-range, running north and south, parallel with the sea-coast, at a distance of from 50 to 100 miles. The summits of this great dividing range,' rise from 2000 to 6000 feet above the level of the sea. Numerous spurs are given off from the range in ridges sloping gradually towards the coast. These ridges are generally composed principally of quartz, and in many places form good natural roads for a considerable distance. The ridges are usually covered with a variety of fine and valuable timber. The iron-bark, bloodwood, box, and other descriptions of wood, very valuable to the farmer for fencing and building, are found here in great abundance. Unlike almost every other portion of Australia, Q. is correctly described as 'a land of rivers and streams.' These rivers find an outlet in the many large and beautiful bays and estuaries on the eastern seaboard. One of these, Moreton Bay (q. v.), receives the waters of five rivers, which are always navigable. The largest of these, the Brisbane, is navigated by good-sized steamers for 75 miles, and is nearly a quarter of a mile wide at a distance of 15 miles from its mouth. The principal rivers on the eastern seaboard are the Logan, the Brisbane, the Mary, the Caliope, the Boyne, the Fitzroy, the Pioneer, and the Burdekin. The longest tidal river in Q. is the Fitzroy, which drains an area of not less than 50 millions of acres, and is navigable as far as Yaruba, 60 miles from its estuary in Keppel Bay. It receives, as its principal tributaries, the Dawson, Mackenzie, and Isaacs, large streams flowing for QUEENSLAND. several hundred miles from the north-west, west, and_south-western parts of the interior. The tide at Rockhampton (40 miles from the embouchure of the river) rises 14 feet, and the stream is thus rendered navigable for vessels of considerable burden. The banks of the rivers are usually well elevated, and in many places consist of very rich alluvium, brought down from the great mountain-ranges. This alluvial soil is frequently of very great depth, and is marked everywhere by a magnificent growth of timber, very unlike the ordinary Australian wood. The enormous fig-trees and gigantic eucalyptæ tower aloft, and spread out their great arms, festooned with vines and flowering parasites, which throw themselves over every spreading branch, and deck it with their varied and brilliant colours; the tall pine-trees shoot up their straight stems to a great height; while the cedar, the myrtle, the rosewood, and tamarind trees, display their rich and green foliage in every variety of shade. A thick evergreen hedge of mangroves covers the banks, preserving them from the wash of the stream; and at certain seasons of the year, this is fringed with thousands of flowering lilies. Ordinarily, the eastern sea-board part of the country assumes very much the appearance of park-scenery in Great Britain, the trees standing at some distance apart, and the ground between them being covered with grass, which is generally green and luxuriant throughout the whole year. The regularity of the showers which fall in the summer season keeps the grass growing with luxuriant verdure generally during the hot months. Exceptions to this sometimes occur, and a dry summer appears to have been experienced in this part of Australia about once in every six or seven years. The summer of 1863 formed one of these exceptional seasons. The frosts of winter being generally so slight as not to injure the vegetation, the country is almost always green from January to December. country which falls off in a succession of steep declivities, or more gradually descending terraces, from the table-land thus described, towards the lower land, which then intervenes between these terraces and the western boundary-line of the colony, in Central Australia. This portion of the territory has been rendered specially interesting from the recent discoveries, which have shewn that instead of a vast and sterile desert of burning sands, the interior of Australia is, with exceptional patches of very limited extent, well grassed and watered, and suitable for pastoral, and in many places even for agricultural occupation. The climate of Q. is said closely to resemble that of Madeira (q. v.); the mean annual external shadetemperature taken at Brisbane being very nearly the same as at Funchal in Madeira, though it is a little hotter in the summer, and colder in the winter at Brisbane than at Funchal. Moreton Bay, now Q., has for many years been the resort of invalids from all the other British colonies in the southern hemisphere, and has been called the Montpellier of Australia. The summer season is hotthe thermometer rising sometimes to 90° or even 100° in the shade; but the air is dry, elastic, and healthy, and the sea-breezes temper the heat, and make it perfectly endurable, even to the out-door labourer, in the hottest time of the year. However hot the day, the night is almost invariably cool, even in the most northern parts of the colony. Barra Barra, have been opened up, and valuable gold deposits are also being worked. The capital of Q., and the seat of the local government, is Brisbane (q. v.), pop. 15,000. Its situation is described as exceedingly beautiful. Ipswich, Rockhampton, Maryborough, Toowoomber, Gayndah, Dalby, and Bowen, are rapidly rising towns. Rockhampton has already attained great importance, and promises ere long to be the metropolis of Queensland. Although only recently established, its population already exceeds 5000 souls, and is rapidly increasing. Situated upon the largest navigable river of Q., it forms the commercial centre and principal outlet of immense tracts of the interior country. A railway is in process of Beyond the Andes,' or great dividing-range, the construction from Rockhampton to Westwood in country presents features of still greater beauty and the direction of Peak Downs, where extensive fertility. Vast plains-10, 15, or 20 miles across-copper mines, said to vie in richness with those of stretch out their level surface unbroken by a single tree, but covered with luxuriant grass, and often purpled over with fragrant herbage. These great plains are composed of rich black soil. They are well watered with a network of streams, which trickle down from the gradual slopes of the mountain-range. The soil in this locality is admirably adapted for tillage; and within a certain distance of the mountain-range, the rains fall with great regularity. The land here is lightly timbered, and is cleared with less labour than on the lower lands, and the soil is proved to be peculiarly adapted for the growth of wheat of the finest quality. The yield per acre in this locality has sometimes been as much as 50, and even 60 bushels to the acre, of 63 lbs. to the bushel. The average yield may be estimated at 30 bushels per acre. Indian corn and other cereals, as well as all the European fruits, grow luxuriantly, and come to the greatest perfection in this highly-favoured locality, which has been called the Garden of Queensland.' This country, west of the great dividing-range, stretches away in a series of fine plateaux for a distance of 400 or 500 miles westward, and, with the interruptions of other mountain-ranges crossing the main range at right angles, for upwards of 1000 miles towards the fertile plains bordering the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. A third distinct portion of Q. is formed by the The Alienation of Crown-lands Act, passed during the first session of the colonial parliament, revolutionised the old plan of selling land at a high upset price at auction, and established a system in its stead which is thus described in an official document issued from the Queensland Government Emigration Office in London: The Queensland Land Act enables small capitalists to choose their farms themselves on any of the Agricultural Reserves throughout the colony; and these reserves are situated within about five miles of all the larger towns, where there is a market for farm-produce. Each reserve contains at least 10,000 acres, already surveyed, and marked out in farms of from 18 to 320 acres. The price at which the land on the reserves is sold is a fixed price of £1 per acre; but this amount being paid for, say 40 acres, the purchaser is entitled to lease from the government three times as much that is, 120 acres more, adjoining the piece he has bought, at a rent of 6d. per acre a year, for five years; and at the end of this time, he may secure the fec-simple of this leased portion by paying the government £1 an acre for it, after having had the use of the land at this mere nominal charge. The farmer cannot purchase less than 18 acres on the reserves, and must pay £18 for it; but his landorders are received by the government at their full nominal value of £30 towards the payment 57 |